Gilgamesh to Shakespeare in graphic novel form: editor of new tome in Asheville

[Rob Neufeld]

Graphic novel classics editor comes to Asheville

Also see Seven Stories Press book description

 

            Russ Kick comes to Malaprop’s Bookstore, 7 p.m., Wednesday, to present “The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1,” which he has edited, and describes as “the world’s great literature as comics and visuals.”

            “Gilgamesh” kicks off the 512-page tome, published by Seven Stories on sturdy white paper and priced at $34.95.

            The artist, Kevin Dixon, author of “Flavor Contra Comix and Stories,” uses a hilarious, black-ink, cartoon style to tell how Gilgamesh, with help from his wilderness buddy, Enkido, overcame the enmity of Ishtar, a princess he’d spurned.

            “One fillip on his noggin and he became a bug!” Gilgamesh relates to Ishtar, enumerating the fates of her former lovers.  A panel shows what looks like a cootie appearing in a flash of light with the words, “bzzwont!” and “zort!”

            The story text, rendered from other translations by Dixon’s father, Kent Dixon, combines with the art to create a bawdiness that is better than standard English translations.

            Most of the other 55 contributions, despite brilliant work, don’t mesh the medium with the content as well.  There are a couple—Hunt Emerson’s “The Inferno” and Robert Crumb’s “London Journal” by James Boswell—that are in league with “Gilgamesh” in both quality and style.

            In all cases, “The Graphic Canon” is a supreme showcase of individual talent and genre development.

            Sanya Glisic’s “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” presents six full-page and double-page artworks—with no words. 

            Robert Berry’s and Josh Levitas’ “Sonnet 18” by Shakespeare offers a large tinted drawing for each line, adding a separate visual story—an artist’s childhood memory of his mother.

            For more information, call Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café at 254-6734.

--Rob Neufeld

 

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Book cover